Obama Blames Right Wing Media for “Toxic” Political Climate!

At a campaign event in Miami, Florida, President Obama stumped for the Democratic nominee. He blamed Donald Trump’s rise to prominence on “far-right media outlets” that have been “pumping out all kinds of toxic, crazy stuff.”

“I know a lot of Republicans, voters – just ordinary folks, your neighbors, your friends – you know, most of them don’t think the way Trump does. And there are legitimate differences between the parties. But you know, there has to be a point where you stand for something more than just party, or more [than] just your own career.

“And here’s the thing. Trump didn’t come out of nowhere now. For years, Republican politicians and far-right media outlets have just been pumping out all kinds of toxic, crazy stuff. I mean, first of all, there was the whole birther thing. Then, they start saying that climate change is a Chinese hoax. And according to them, I’m powerful enough to cause these hurricanes; I’m about to steal everybody’s guns in the middle of the night and declare martial law; but somehow I still need a teleprompter to finish a sentence.

“So, they’ve been saying crazy stuff. And there are a lot of politicians like Marco Rubio who know better, but they just look the other way.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP3FJZHfMxs

For what it’s worth, “the whole birther thing” was actually started by Hillary Clinton’s supporters in 2008.

The “Chinese hoax” thing originated from a 2012 tweet from Donald Trump in which he said: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” And Trump didn’t get that from “far-right media outlets.”

“Well, I think the climate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax. A lot of people are making a lot of money. I know much about climate change. I’d be — received environmental awards. And I often joke that this is done for the benefit of China. Obviously, I joke. But this is done for the benefit of China, because China does not do anything to help climate change. They burn everything you could burn; they couldn’t care less. They have very — you know, their standards are nothing. But they — in the meantime, they can undercut us on price. So it’s very hard on our business.”

Was his “Chinese hoax” comment tongue-in-cheek? I don’t know. But even PolitiFact was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on the Chinese part of it, but they wouldn’t let him get away with his insistence that manmade climate change is a “hoax.”

Calling manmade climate change – or global warming – a “hoax” is hardly something only relegated to the “far-right media outlets.” Lots of people regard the hypothesis of manmade global warming as primarily being a political issue rather than a scientific one.